Author Topic: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?  (Read 2365 times)

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Offline Strato Incendus

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How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« on: February 16, 2018, 01:24:05 AM »
I've finished the majority of my tracks for Lemmings World Tour and set the end of the file deliberately in a way so that the song would loop in NeoLemmix indefinitely, like the original music. Yet, when I try this out in the Level Editor I still get an ever so tiny gap between the repeats (0.5 to 1 second, perhaps).

In Logic Pro (the recording software / DAW I use), the tracks cycle perfectly fine, and also when I listen to the exported MP3s, they end right after the last note.

Is this an issue with the MP3 format in NeoLemmix which may be solved when I convert the files to .ogg? ;)
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline nin10doadict

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2018, 04:54:49 PM »
That could be the case. I personally use Audacity and .ogg for making my music tracks loop properly in NeoLemmix, so I don't know how well .mp3 looping could be set up. I did give a tutorial in Nessy's topic for Lemmings Migration about how to do it with .ogg files. Link: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=3369.msg66114#msg66114

Offline namida

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2018, 09:50:05 PM »
NeoLemmix supports the (IIRC these were the correct names - check an OGG file from the DOS or Master System music packs to make sure) "LOOPSTART" and "LOOPLENGTH" metainfo tags in OGG files. It does not support them in any other format, including MP3.

If you just rely on the correct ending timing of the file, I don't know if this will cause it to loop properly or not. The LOOPSTART / LOOPLENGTH tags definitely do. Note that the values for these are in samples, not seconds. (I don't know why the hell this is preferred tbh, but it's how other applications that handle these tags (eg. BRTSM Converter, the RPG Maker series) work, so I stuck with that for consistency.)
My Lemmings projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
3D Lemmings: Loap (engine) | L3DEdit (level / graphics editor) | L3DUtils (replay / etc utility) | Lemmings Plus 3D (level pack)

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2018, 10:05:27 PM »
Okay, so I definitely have to convert them to .ogg then. Will that suffice if the file itself already has the appropriate length (I did all the shortening in Logic Pro)? Or is it always necessary to set the loop manually with Audacity or similar?
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2018, 01:40:50 AM »
Okay, I tried it with the tags, however there is still that gap remaining. After all, I purposefully did NOT include a break in the song, because I didn't want any noticeable silence to be there. And those songs which have a break already loop nicely the way they are. What's more, the .ogg files are actually larger than the MP3s I created, so it doesn't even make the download easier.

I do wonder though how the original tracks included in NeoLemmix loop without me noticing? The only track which has a break in it is "Ten Green Bottles", the others seem to go on indefinitely.

That's also the way the loop in Logic works - I guess there's some kind of crossfade going on in the background, blending the ending of the first iteration with the beginning of the second one.
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline nin10doadict

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2018, 04:14:40 PM »
If all else fails, you could send the songs over to me and I could take a look at them and try to get the loop working correctly.

Offline Strato Incendus

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2018, 12:38:08 PM »
Thanks a lot for the offer! ;)

In fact, you'll get them soon anyway, since 12 of them come as part of my Lemmicks pack :D .
My packs so far:
Lemmings World Tour (New & Old Formats), my music-themed flagship pack, 320 levels - Let's Played by Colorful Arty
Lemmings Open Air, my newest release and follow-up to World Tour, 120 levels
Paralems (Old Formats), a more flavour-driven one, 150 levels
Pit Lems (Old Formats), a more puzzly one, 100 levels - Let's Played by nin10doadict
Lemmicks, a pack for (very old) NeoLemmix 1.43 full of gimmicks, 170 levels

Offline 607

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Re: How do I make music tracks loop without breaks in between?
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2018, 02:20:28 PM »
I always used .it's, because the default NeoLemmix music is in that format. But I did find out about .ogg's being possible to use.